Reunion
by spiffykay
Summary: Ten years after high school and everything's how it's supposed to be. SS oneshot.


**Disclaimer: I'm not Josh Schwartz so no, it is not mine.**

**A/N: I just got this random idea after watching "Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion." Which is a terrific movie by the way. Anyway, I got this random idea and found myself in a writing mood and eventually I had this. Don't worry - another chapter of "In Your Arms" should be up soon. (And if you haven't reviewed the current chapter already, I'd really appreciate it if you would!)  
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**Read. Enjoy. And review and tell me if you like this random spaz of writing or not.**

**And the italics? A dream. So don't get too confused or thrown off by that.**

**(Oh, and to forewarn you, the ending is particularly fluffy. I even rolled my eyes a few times when proofreading it.)**

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Sometimes he wondered what life would had been like if he had made certain pivotal decisions in precise moments throughout his life.

Big things – like if he had chosen to go to a different college – and small things – like if he had chosen to go or stay home on some random day in high school or junior high rather slugging his lanky body down the loud hallways of Harbor. Everything made him wonder these days. It was what was making his brain tick; kicking him from one day to the next.

It certainly didn't help that his high school reunion was being held in the same fancy hotel hall that he was currently occupying.

Seth sat at his table, with his head down, thinking to himself. It wasn't like he was unhappy in his life, he was just unhappy to be here. To be reminded of all the things he wasn't and all the things he never had been. High school was like this awful memory imbedded in his brain that wouldn't disappear or go away. He hated being here. He hated seeing people he had vied never to see again after he had received his diploma.

But his wife wanted to be here. So here he was. Sitting at the table with his elbows holding his head up with a champagne glass placed in front of him on the maroon tablecloth.

"Seth!"

Seth turned his head slightly, smiling over at the raven-haired woman that shouted his name. He always wondered in amazement what she was doing with him. What she saw in him that made her forget anything else that had ever been said about him. He saw her smile widen as he waved and her body turned, showing the slight bump that had been continually forming in her stomach for the past six months. He saw her mouth something to the other man she was talking to and point back to Seth. Seth took his eyes off of his wife and then glanced at the man. His jaw dropped, recovering only a second later, nodding his head in astonishment. Seth groaned to himself, looking back in front of him, grabbing the alcoholic glass and taking a few slips before it was quickly finished.

"Seth," his wife approached him, "Come talk with us. He says he hasn't seen you since high school. Why don't you come tell him what you've been up to?"

"Aren't you doing that for me?" Seth asked her.

She put her arm comfortingly on his shoulder, leaning down. "I am, but I want you to come talk to him too. I want you to have a good time."

"This is my high school reunion," Seth told her deadpanned.

"Seth…" she tried warningly.

"I need to go to the bathroom," Seth got up from the table as his wife released her arm, letting him go.

Seth trudged off in search of the bathroom but instead found himself on the balcony of the hotel, gapping down at the ground below him. He didn't know why he was acting this way. He was being ridiculous and treating his wife with disrespect, leaving her alone in the hall.

He never faltered when it came to giving his wife everything she wanted. Seth made her happy and she made Seth happy. She made Seth _extremely_ happy. He wanted to protect her and their child on the way more than anything in the world. He had everything he wanted but somehow his nerves were still getting the best of him.

Seth sighed, leaning on the balcony's railings. He turned his head, looking back inside at the crowds of people. He quickly spotted his wife – she was draped beautifully in a magenta dress that fell just above her knees and showed her curves (including their baby's growing body in her stomach) wonderfully and her smile lit up the room. Her arms were tanned and slim, one clutching a small purse and the other a glass of water. He saw her surrounded by a few couples and suddenly felt guilt come over him. Instead of going inside to stand next to her, Seth let the guilt rush through him and the worry of losing her seep in as he fell to the ground. He gathered his knees to his chest, collapsing his head into his knees, wishing he were anywhere but Newport Beach, California.

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"So where is your husband?" The former schoolmate asked Summer. "Or are you… you know… doing that on your own?" He pointed to her stomach.

"Oh," Summer tried to laugh it off, swaying back and forth nervously in her short heels, "No, no. He's right over there." Summer pointed over to her husband who was sitting quietly at a nearby table. "Seth!"

Her husband turned his head, giving her a slight smile of acknowledgement, before turning back to his drink.

"Oh, wow," the man replied. "Is that, um, Seth Cohen? I haven't seen him since high school."

"Yeah," Summer smiled boldly. "He's my husband."

"And um," he pointed to her stomach, "Is that his?"

Summer frowned for a moment, not quite believing what she was hearing, but then reminded herself that she was in Newport, not Boston, and that her high school reputation was still preceding itself. "Yes, and she's due in September." Summer rubbed her stomach proudly.

"A baby girl? Wow. That's amazing," the man answered in wonder.

"I know. It is," Summer replied, keeping a hold on her forced smile. "Here – I'm gonna go get my husband. Excuse me a moment?"

"Sure thing," he brought his champagne glass up to his lips. "Go right ahead."

Summer smiled as she walked over to Seth. "Seth. Come talk with us. He says he hasn't seen you since high school. Why don't you come tell him what you've been up to?"

Seth groaned and Summer felt her heart breaking a bit. "Aren't you doing that for me?"

"I am, but I want you to come talk to him too. I want you to have a good time."

Her husband scoffed, "This is my high school reunion."

Summer paused before replying. She knew he hated being here but he still insisted on coming. Once he found out that she had wanted to go, he refused to let her back out of it because he knew she was only trying to say that she didn't want to go because he didn't want to go.

Summer knew Seth inside and out. But in this moment, she felt like she didn't know him at all.

"Seth…" she tried warningly.

Seth shook her off, standing up. "I need to go to the bathroom."

Summer watched him walk off sadly, letting melancholy fill inside of her. How did Newport always seem to shake their stable relationship status?

Summer turned on her heels, walking back to the man who was now joined by his own wife and a few other couples. She engrossed herself in the conversation once again like the amazing conversationalist she was, and tried to rid her thoughts of her hurting husband.

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_Seth stood in the crowd of people, feeling smaller and more insignificant as each second passed. He glanced around at each face, trying to familiarize them and remember who they were and if they had been one of the notorious ones that had called him 'Death Breath Seth' back ten years ago._

_He continued standing in place, leaning against the wall, searching the crowd for the one person – the only reason – he had come to this ludicrous reunion for in the first place. And as soon as he thought it, he saw her. Her hair cascaded down her shoulders and her long, midnight blue dress sparkled as brightly as her smile. Her arm was linked with a tall, unfamiliar, tanned-skinned man with shiny dirty blonde hair._

_Seth couldn't help but think that they looked like a couple straight out of one of those celebrity gossip magazines that she used to read in high school._

_And then he wondered, did she still read those absurd magazines? Was she still the girl he had lost his virginity to when he was sixteen? Did she even remember who he was?_

_Seth pushed himself off of the wall, making his way towards her as the man she accompanied took her dress coat and walked off. She stood smiling and waving at passer-bys, reaching for a glass of champagne and taking a few short sips._

"_Summer Roberts," Seth mouthed quietly once he was close enough to her. She turned around with a questioning look and then laid eyes on Seth. She smiled awkwardly, waving her hand._

"_Hey, Seth."_

_Seth felt like he could have died in that instant._

_Summer reached her hands out to him and he fell against her frame, enclosing his arms around her petite body and smelling the perfume coming off of her silky skin._

_She pulled away from the hug, still smiling. "How are you?"_

"_I'm all right. You know, good," Seth stuttered._

_She laughed. Seth felt his heart skip a beat or two._

"_That's good to hear."_

"_And how are you?" Seth managed to squeak out._

"_Pretty good. I live in LA now which is interesting. Almost a lifetime away from Newport," Summer beamed._

"_Of course it is," Seth grinned back. "I live in New York. I'm a sales executive."_

"_Oh," Summer let shock wave through her voice, "Cool. I mean… is that what you wanted to do in high school?"_

_Seth found it remarkable that Summer was able to tell almost anything about him. He hadn't known her long – sophomore year the most – and he barely even dated her – only about two weeks – but somehow she could read him, inside and out. It was because of this he always thought about her; how he couldn't go a day wondering where she was, what she was doing, and whom she was doing it with. Seth had wished with all his heart that he could go back in time and change the coward he had been in high school and redo the events that could have so easily changed his future; reshaped his life._

"_No," Seth laughed embarrassingly, "I had wanted to be a writer. But that didn't really work out."_

"_I see," Summer answered, gripping her champagne glass and taking another sip._

"_What about you? What do you do for a living now?"_

"_Oh, me? I'm just a Congressman's wife. It's such a busy lifestyle that I don't have time to have a career of my own."_

"_Didn't you always want to have your own fashion line?" Seth questioned curiously._

"_Yeah," Summer sighed, "But like you said, that didn't really work out."_

"_Right," Seth responded._

_Seth stood there awkwardly, wanting to keep Summer in conversation but finding himself running out of conversation topics. Summer glanced away a few times, waving to other familiar faces, before every so often returning her gaze back to Seth._

_Seth had often wondered what life would have been like if he had just taken that impulse to stand on that pathetic coffee cart and declare his love for her like he had the urge to do so many years ago. He had wanted to do it so bad but his fear of being humiliated throughout the entire school scared him too much and instead he let his and Summer's short attempt at a relationship fall to pieces and made his way back into the arms of Anna, his second choice. Summer and him had remained civil and even friends at first after they found they didn't work as a couple. But eventually that faded and by the end of senior year with the death of Summer's best friend, Marissa, they had lost touch._

_He stared admiringly into Summer's chocolate orbs, trying to see everything he had missed for the past ten years. Summer gazed back, as if she was trying to do the same thing; as if she had the same questions racing through her own mind._

_Why hadn't he shown her how much he loved her? Why hadn't he worked harder with her to make their relationship last? Why did being a coward in high school flow over into his life ten years thereafter?_

_And what would have happened if he had made a different decision?_

_Seth broke the silence, clearing his throat and looking back into Summer's eyes._

"_Do you ever think of what could have happened?"_

_Summer seemed confused and scrunched up her face to display it. "What do you mean?"_

"_Like if we had tried," Seth attempted to explain to her anxiously. "Worked harder for it. For us. Or if I had just, you know, done something… more."_

_She paused for a moment, clearly thinking the question through. She began shaking her head as he noticed her date approaching them. "Not anymore."_

_Seth stood shocked but composed himself when Summer's mystery date interrupted his thoughts._

"_You ready to mingle, baby?"_

_Summer turned towards him, smiling, and placing her arm affectionately on his. "Yeah." She then twisted her head back to Seth, smiling sadly, "Good luck, Seth."_

_Seth merely nodded, letting the only love he had ever known walk from his life once again._

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"Seth," Summer knelt down as much as she could without stumbling backward, pushing her husband's arm lightly. "Baby, wake up."

Seth jolted from his sleeping state, staring at the beauty in front of him. There Summer smiled lovingly down at him, moving his arms apart and pressing his legs down as she found a comfortable spot in his lap.

"Have a nice nap?"

Seth chuckled quietly and shook his head, leaning it down towards his chest. "Not at all."

"Listen," Summer used her index finger to push Seth's jaw back up so their eyes connected once again, "We didn't have to come if you really didn't want to. I just wish you would have told me so that we both wouldn't have spent tonight miserable."

"You were miserable?" Seth asked obliviously.

"Of course. My husband's been out on the balcony all night while I've been in there trying to convince old classmates that I didn't go to a sperm bank and plan to raise this child on my own," Summer told him jokingly.

Seth smiled sadly, looking down again, "I'm sorry."

"Tell me, Cohen."

Seth looked up again. "What?"

"Tell me what you're thinking."

Seth laughed, feeling that Summer already knew. "You know what I'm thinking, Summer."

"That you hate it here? That you hate being reminded of things from high school? That this place is probably the last place you want to be? That you'd rather be at home back in Boston watching a baseball game on the Fenway?"

"See, I told you you knew what I was thinking."

Summer leaned in, lightly grazing her lips against his. She pulled back, placing her hands on either side of Seth's face. "Yeah, I know that's what you're thinking. But I also know there's something else going on that I can't seem to pinpoint. So tell me – what's on your mind? What's really going on tonight?"

Seth took a deep breath before gathering himself to answer his wife. "You remember that time in high school when I stood on that stupid coffee cart during the kissing booth?"

"That was the single most romantic moment of my life, Cohen. Course I remember it."

"Right," Seth laughed. "Well, did I ever tell you I almost didn't do it? That I almost completely chickened out and ran back to Anna?"

Summer tore her hands away from Seth's face, leaning back a bit. "What?"

"Fear took over me, Sum. I kept looking at you kissing those other guys and then looking back at Anna playing the video game and I was just waging this war in my head and I couldn't figure out what to do. I was so scared. More than I ever have been in my entire life. Except when I asked you to marry me."

"You never told me that," Summer reacted calmly.

Seth continued on, fearing that if he didn't get all his worries and wonders that had been baffling his brain that he would never get them out. "I was so close to walking over to Anna and telling her that I had made a mistake – that I wanted to be with her and that you were just some high school crush. I wanted to take the easy way out so bad to keep from humiliating myself and bringing more embarrassment to my already traumatizing high school experience. I was just gonna let you dump me like you told Anna you were going to because we just didn't work as a couple and I was just gonna let you go without a fight. And run back to Anna. Even though I knew I could never love her like I had already loved you."

"But you didn't, Cohen. You got up there and told me how you felt and forced me to confront my own fears about being with you under the scrutiny of everyone in high school. You didn't let that chance pass by. That's what matters."

"Yeah, but what if I had, Summer? What then? I just had a dream about it. Like that we were here – but not together – and you were married to some Congressman and lived in LA while I lived in New York and we were both in jobs that we hated. Well, actually, you didn't have a job; you were just a Congressman's wife – following him from city to city. But either way, that could have happened you know. We could have easily not been together if I made some stupid choice back then."

Summer giggled faintly. "I really hope our baby doesn't have your over-analyzing issues."

"Summer…" Seth whined.

Summer reached for Seth's hand, taking a hold of it and placing it on her stomach and then placing her own hand on top of his. "This – right here – is all that matters. This baby in here. What happened in high school happened for a reason. And even if you hadn't gotten up on that coffee cart, I honestly feel that we would have somehow found a way back to each other. Because I really feel like you're my soul mate – in that completely cliché sense. So even if you had run back to Anna and I had continued being some shallow, bitchy California teenager, I still believe that we would have ended up here. Well, not here sitting on the ground of this balcony, but here as in having this child together. Don't you?"

"I always hoped so," Seth grinned and then, moved his hand suddenly after feeling a jolt coming from Summer's stomach. "Summer! The baby kicked!"

"I know," she returned the smile; "I felt it."

"That's our baby in there, Summer. That's our baby girl."

"I love you, Seth Cohen."

Seth leaned closer to his wife's face, drawing his lips to hers. "I love you too, Summer Cohen."

Summer laughed just before Seth's lips landed on hers. "God, that _still_ sounds so awful!"

"Thanks," Seth replied sarcastically. "Glad to know my wife enjoys sharing the same name."

"Aw, Cohen, come here," Summer pulled Seth's neck, bringing their lips together in a loving kiss, tongues soon battling in each other's mouths.

"Come on," Summer tugged away. "Let's go inside."

Seth obeyed her and got Summer off of his lap, stood up, and helped her onto her feet. They walked into the hall hand-in-hand, as Summer was called over to a new group of people whom had recognized her.

"Summer Roberts!" One of the women greeted, holding onto her own husband's hand. "How have you been? And look at you! You're pregnant!"

"Yeah," Summer smiled shyly.

"And is this the father?" The woman probed further.

"Yes, hi," Seth greeted her confidently, wrapping his arm around Summer's waist, pulling her closer to his body. "I'm Summer's husband. Seth Cohen."

Summer smiled warmly up at Seth, leaning her head into his shoulder, rubbing her stomach. "And this is our baby girl in here. She's due in September."

People awed and people cooed and even a few threw surprised glances at the mention of Seth's name, but Seth and Summer held onto each other, never planning on letting the other one go.


End file.
